The lucrative children market in China: Data, Trends, Solution

The biggest market in the world in 2024, not very competitve and a golden mine for western Brands: CHINA

The one child policy, a part of the family planning policy, ended on January 2016 and created a boom in the China’s mother and baby market.

The children’s market in China, encompassing products and services for children, is dynamic and diverse. Here are ten key data points about this market as of 2023-2024:

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1. Market Size Growth: The market for children’s products in China, including toys, apparel, and educational products, has seen continuous growth (since 10 years), reaching tens of billions of dollars.
2. Increase in Birth Rate Post-COVID-19: Following the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a slight increase in birth rates, contributing to the demand for children’s products and services.
3. Preference for Educational Toys: There’s a growing trend towards educational toys and products that promote cognitive development, with this segment experiencing significant growth. Amazing opportunities there
4. Online Retail Dominance: E-commerce platforms have become key sales channels for children’s products, with parents increasingly turning to online shopping for convenience.
5. Rise in Children’s Fashion: The children’s fashion sector, especially branded and designer wear, has seen notable growth, driven by rising income levels and fashion-conscious parents.
6. Demand for High-Quality Baby Products: Parents are increasingly looking for high-quality baby products, including organic and hypoallergenic items, driving growth in this segment. In China, parents invest in their Kids
7. Growing Children’s Entertainment Industry: The entertainment sector for children, including online games, animation, and children’s TV shows, has expanded rapidly.
8. Increase in Extracurricular Education Services: There’s a growing market for extracurricular and after-school educational services, including language classes, sports, and arts.
9. Health and Wellness Products for Children: Health and nutritional products tailored for children, such as vitamins and health supplements, are increasingly popular.
10. Influence of Social Media and Influencers: Social media and child influencers (or their parents) are playing a larger role in shaping trends and purchasing decisions in the children’s market.

This market is influenced by various factors, including changing demographic trends, government policies, evolving consumer preferences, and technological advancements. The children’s market in China presents numerous opportunities for brands and businesses that can adapt to these dynamic conditions.

In 2023 the July Children Baby Maternity Expo took place in Shanghai. This exposition was focus on product safety related to children. In the past, China came across many scandals about products safety.

The market size of China’s maternal and infant sector reach $1.1 trillion

For example, the 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident involving milk and infant formula along with other food materials and components being adulterated with melamine. These products caused 300,000 victims in China and the death of six babies. Consequently, the demand of imported milk powder increased last few years.

Indeed, Chinese parents are more inclined to trust foreign products and buy these products. Chinese parents are still interrogating about domestically produced formula. So, the 2023exposition had a whole hall dedicated to foreign producers from Europe, the United States and Australia. Another hall was dedicated to Chinese companies claiming that their products are supplying from overseas.

In 2024 the average amount a Chinese parent spends on their child is 50 000Rmb per year , 7000USD

It can vary significantly based on several factors, including the family’s income level, the region they live in, and their individual priorities for child-rearing. U

rban families, particularly in major cities like Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, tend to spend more on their children compared to those in rural areas, reflecting the higher cost of living and greater access to diverse products and services.

In China, Kids are Investment

Several reports and studies have suggested that Chinese parents, influenced by the traditional notion of “xiao” (filial piety), are often willing to invest a substantial portion of their income in their children’s education, health, and overall wellbeing. This includes spending on education, extracurricular activities, health products, clothing, toys, and technology.

On average, expenditure per child can range from a few thousand to tens of thousands of yuan annually, with education being one of the largest categories of spending. For instance, in major cities, parents might spend significantly on private tutoring, extracurricular classes, and educational materials.

The market of organic products for kids

Case study: Ouleyaun-GMA

Ouleyuan is an e-commerce website which targets Chinese consumers and proposes French products. The company was present at the exhibition to promote its Native Bliss and Kids Bliss brands. Consumers can find many types of products on this platform: delicacies, baby food, milk powder or skin are products.

The website focuses on providing natural and organic products. The products offer meets the expectation of Chinese consumers in two areas since French products as well as natural products are gaining popularity.

Everything is organic and all-natural, with many of our products containing extracts from plants unique to France. The Chinese are very open to good-quality products from abroad and, at the same time, they want only the very best products for their children and are willing to pay for them.

High-quality and fashionable kids products are in need in China

Now in China, with the young generation grows up, they care about the quality as well as the style of kid’s products. They tend to choose imported brands because of their fashionable design and good quality.

A lot of international brands specialized in children’s clothes produced from high-quality materials, including organic fiber. Mei Lim said: “In Europe, particularly in the UK, they are much more aware of children’s fashion needs. We feel we are going to be very big in China.”

Many of the country’s middle- to upper-class consumers want real quality for their children, while also valuing items that are a little different.” The Lisa & Damien brand largely sells online but it also has a dedicated outlet in Guangzhou, in southern China. In 2015, the brand even won a major UK design award.

The priority is security in kids products in China

As we all know about China’s scandals about kid’s products happened in China, Chinese consumers care a lot about the security of products they buy for their children. It is also due to those scandals, Chines parents prefer to buy foreign brands because they are preserved as reliable and security.

Chance for UK-based Cozy N Safe to enter Chinese Children car seats market.

The UK-based Cozy N Safe is one of the exhibitors offered specialist car seat for children. The company is a significant player in its home market and across Europe with its rand stocked by leading retailers, including Tesco, Asda, Toys ‘R’ Us, Mothercare and Carrefour.

The sales executive, Yolanda Hu said: “While not so long ago, there were no safety regulations relating to child-seat use in China, that has all changed. In Shenzhen, for instance, children up to four years old must be in a child car seat. It now looks likely that similar requirements will be introduced elsewhere in China. This is great news for us as all of our products already comply with stringent European safety regulations.” to explain the reasons for the company to move into the mainland and the Southeast Asian markets.

Besafe outstands for its car seats safety

Besafe, a Norwegian children’s car seat manufacturer, is another company which want to single out as important product safety. During the exhibition, the company promoted its new iZi Modular i-Size model.

The Product Manager Frank Lilleheil said: “It features both a plastic shell and a reinforced soft shell comprising energy-absorbent material. The head rest and belts are both easy to adjust, making it relatively straightforward to get a child in and out. As with all of our products, it was certified by ADAC, the German automobile association renowned for the rigor of its testing procedures.”

How to promote children products in China?

Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, has emerged as a dynamic platform for cross-border marketing, including in the maternity products sector. Its unique features and user engagement strategies offer distinct advantages for brands looking to tap into the Chinese market. Here’s an introduction to Douyin for the cross-border maternity market, followed by five tailored strategies for maternity brands on Douyin:

Douyin for Cross-Border Maternity Market:

• Vibrant User Base: Douyin boasts a vast and engaged user base, ideal for reaching a wide demographic, including expectant mothers and young families.
• Interactive Content Format: The platform’s short video format is perfect for showcasing maternity products in an engaging and easily digestible manner.
• E-commerce Integration: Douyin allows direct linking to e-commerce platforms, facilitating seamless purchasing experiences for maternity products.
• Influencer Collaborations: Collaboration with KOLs (Key Opinion Leaders) who focus on maternity and parenting can significantly amplify brand reach and credibility.
• Targeted Advertising: Douyin’s sophisticated advertising tools enable maternity brands to target their campaigns effectively towards expecting mothers and new parents.

Read more

Douyin E-Commerce Sales Explosive Growth, an opportunity for brands to seize

Solutions for Maternity Brands on Douyin:

1. Engaging Educational Content: Create content that educates expecting mothers about prenatal care and maternity product benefits, leveraging Douyin’s engaging video format for maximum impact.
2. Product Demonstrations via Live Streaming: Utilize live streaming to demonstrate product usage, offering real-time interaction with potential customers, and addressing queries about maternity products.
3. Partnerships with Maternity Influencers: Collaborate with influencers who specialize in maternity and parenting content. Their endorsements can lend credibility and drive conversions.
4. Interactive Campaigns: Launch interactive campaigns such as Q&A sessions, prenatal care tips, and maternity fashion shows, encouraging user participation and engagement.
5. Customized Hashtag Challenges: Create fun and relatable hashtag challenges related to pregnancy and motherhood. This not only boosts brand visibility but also fosters a community around the brand.

By leveraging Douyin’s unique features and employing these strategies, maternity brands can effectively engage with their target audience, enhance brand visibility, and drive cross-border sales in the Chinese market

Douyin E-Commerce – Douyin Flagship Stores For Brands

A Chinese website for Credibility

A website in Chinese is necessary to enter a market and realize branding. This is an efficient solution to increase the popularity of your products, influence consumers with content and design, and develop the image of your company in the country.

Moreover, having a website written in mandarin is essential. Chinese consumers spend more than 40% of their daily life on Internet and these internet users trust more Chinese websites than English websites.

Your website is a portal to create your brand reliability among Chinese viewers. They will never buy products they don’t know and on which they don’t have confidence. 

Chinese Website – WebDesign Agency

Social media Campaign to boost your e-reputation

According to Statista, China is the world largest connected country: there were around 882 million social media users in China. Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter are blocked in the country. China is the world’s biggest social media market. WeChat, Weibo and Xiaohongshu are three largest social networks in China. 

WeChat is the social media the most used in China and, regardless of the size of your company, it is an essential media to develop your marketing strategy in the country. 

There are three main types of WeChat advertising:

• Moments ads
• Mini-program ads
• Official account ads

Moments advertisement is also called native ads. It is displayed in the user’s Moments in the form of original content similar to friends. With billions of high-quality user traffic, Moments ads provides advertisers with an efficient Internet social promotion and marketing platform in China.

Mini-program contains three categories of banner ads, which are ads at the bottom of an article, in-articles ads and KOL-generated ads. Official account ads mean you can have an enterprise account on WeChat, in this subscription account, users can see your brand news.

By promoting your products on social media, you can build a community surrounding your company, reach your target, get feedback and create a friendlier company image.

Sina Weibo, China’s largest SNS so far, has got a nearly 88% penetration rate among the nation’s excess 358 million users. It has also attracted over 130,000 companies including one-third top 500 enterprises in the world. They don’t just join Weibo on impulse, but for the benefit Weibo can bring them. Some come to Weibo for brand awareness, some for brand image and others for closer relationship with customers.

2024 Xiaohongshu, also known as Red Little Book (RED), is a social media and e-commerce platform. It was created as a user-generated content platform for Chinese consumers to share user experiences. Based on this concept, users on the platform are loyal and ready to buy.

With the user database gets bigger and bigger, RED started to create e-commerce on the platform. Now this social network is also a place ideal for marketing campaign, especially those related to KOLs.

E-commerce platforms reach more users

The development of new technologies and the increased use of smartphones and tablets allowed an explosive growth of the e-commerce in China. One of the best Chinese e-commerce platform is Tmall which is part of Alibaba group led by Jack Ma. This is definitely the largest B2C platform in China, it offers a wide a selection of affordable products and decent logistics and attracts value-conscious shoppers.

Contrary to its competitor Taobao, the company has made arrangements to ensure that products sold on Tmall are authentic. Known as the “Amazon of China”, JD.com is also one of the main B2C e-commerce platforms and is Tmall’s biggest rival in terms of baby products. Consequently, using e-commerce platforms to develop your business is a must to efficiently enter the Chinese market.

E-Reputation and brand awareness are essential for entering China’s children market

If you want to enter the Chinese children market, think seriously about your brand image before acting. The reputation is very important if you want to reach your target. The new millennial mother are very strict about the education and the needs of their Children.

They will never contact or buy your products if you have a bad image online or you don’t have an image in China. You have to invest in your brand image for get the Chinese customers’ confidence.

The above-mentioned social networks and e-commerce platforms are main channels to create your brand a good e-reputation and to present your brand to Chinese consumers.

The right strategy to enter the Chinese Market ?

If you want to receive our last tips about promoting your children products in China, feel be free to contact us. Our consultant will contact you back and explain the best strategy, timing, and the budget you need for an effective marketing strategy.

We are specialist of the Chinese Kids market and offers cost efficient solutions to help you grow in China. Contact-us to learn more and get a 30 min free consultation with on of our expert!

More about the kids market in China :

• Kindergartens Are Rising in China : Opportunities for Education Businesses
• JD.com is marching into luxury fashion
• How to Market A Soda Brand in China ?